The Eve Of Destruction!
by John3Sobieski
Summary: The Animorphs aren't able to take on their current challenge on their own. Since they don't know the Michigan area very well, they recruit a family that's from there. Now, maybe they have a chance, but how will the raw recruits fare in a fight?


**The Eve**(Of Destruction!)

**Chapter 1**

I laid into the enemy with a righteous fury that only those who have opposed me ever come to understand. My tank bounced on its suspension system as I ran over the train tracks at full speed. The main machine gun was blazing as line after line of enemy soldiers were laid low. The man in the top turret joined in, adding to the awesome firepower that is the M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. I lined up an enemy tank with the main gun, firing its 120mm smoothbore cannon. The T-90 exploded in a massive fireball, sending nearby enemy soldiers flying in all directions. Movement caught my, some enemy infantry trying to place C-4 on my hull! I backed up, smearing him on the wall of a building. Like he was going to pull a fast one on me!

I turned back toward the objective and floored the tank. Nothing would stop me. I saw a man with a rocket launcher in a window aiming at me. I shot him with the main gun, dropping him stone dead. The streets of the city of Oman were completely cleared of enemy troops. None of them wanted to get in my way. Couldn't say I blamed them.

I made it to the objective. The flag was there. It was lowered, mine was raised. They tried to resist by throwing their grenades, but that didn't do much. They didn't last when I shot them with the machine guns. Before long, my flag was at the top. Their points suddenly dropped to zero. The computer screen announced USMC 245 – MEC 0. Another great conquest in the realm of Battlefield 2.

"Scott! You have to get off. It's time to go."

"Okay Fred. Let me shut down the computer and I'll be on my way." He's my brother. And we were leaving today for Drummond Island. By all means, I shouldn't have hopped on the computer at all. It would be a seven hour + ride, and my family has no patience for anybody holding it up.

I shut down the computer. Everything was already packed, we had done that the night before. Now all there was to do was lock the door behind me and buckle up. Mike, another brother of mine, backed up out of the garage and we were headed down the driveway. Dad drove another minivan, but with the fishing boat attached. We were on our way.

By 'we,' I mean the Czarnecki family. There is Mom and Dad. Mom's just past 50 now. She's about five foot four, with a narrow freckled face, blue eyes, and a blonde bun. My dad is about five foot ten with black thinning hair, a rounder face, brown eyes and glasses. He is also a little bit chubby, though it's an unwritten rule that I can't say anything about that. So just keep it hush hush between the two of us, okay?

Then there are the rest of us, the seven kids. In order, it's Mike, David, Fred, Tim, me, Dan, and Maria. Yup, the sister got stuck at the bottom, evoking special treatment from Mom and Dad. Ah well, there's nothing I can do about it.

Mike is twenty-three now. He takes more after Mom than anyone else when it comes to looks, except that he has more of an athlete's body. Unfortunately, being out of high school sports and being over the drinking age has gotten rid of that aspect of him. He's another blonde, slightly freckled, brown eyed. He's five foot ten and keeps to himself a lot of the time. He's got a career going with MDoT.

David and Fred are the anomalies. David is six foot three and Fred is six foot two. They dwarf Mom, Dad, and all the rest of us. But it's not like it came from nowhere. It must have carried over from Grandpa on my mom's side. We have no idea where he got his height from.

David is going to head off for college in Florida soon at the young age of twenty one. Right now, though, he's working for a seemingly miserable plumber. He's got a big wavy mop of brown hair and blue eyes. His face doesn't look like any normal description. All I can really say about it is that his face has energy in it. He certainly behaves like it. He turned us all onto the Who and plays in a small time rock band.

Fred is home on leave from the Naval Academy. Someday, he's going to be an Ensign. Having an official officer in the family is going to be cool. Now, though, he's got to study and make sure not to get any honor violations. He's not particularly ripped, but he's plenty strong for a twenty year old. You don't want to mess with him.

Tim wants to be a photographer. He goes to a community college, while wasting his nineteen year old youth away at a part time job. Hey, it's money, and college kids sure need it. He's not as tall as David or Fred, but is just below Mike. Like the rest of us, he has brown eyes. His hair is a dirty blond. He likes to exercise and stay in shape. But mostly, he likes to chill.

Me, I'm seventeen and just below Tim in stature. I'm not particularly strong. I don't care for school sports. I like to have fun when I play, but a lot of kids at school are jerks, and that takes the fun out of it. I guess a lot of their immaturity has stuck around since Freshman year, despite the fact that we're already in eleventh grade. Whatever. Screw them. Mostly, I just want to play computer games if my parents will let me. That, or read historical books, scifi, or watch the History and Military Channels.

Danny is sixteen and in tenth grade. He's brown haired boy too, though just a little lighter than mine. He's a bit chubbier too. He likes to play baseball and hockey, like everybody else in our family. Except more so on the baseball part. I don't know what he wants to do with his life. Probably isn't looking that far ahead.

Maria is a straight haired blonde in eighth grade. She shares our interests in sports like baseball and hockey, but lately she's been transforming from the tomboy she's always been to more of a girly-girl. I guess it was inevitable, now that she's with a bunch of girls all day long instead of a bunch of brothers. But Zoey 101 still drives me insane. She's slightly shorter than Dan, and plays all the sports she can in addition to playing the Baratone in Band.

Yessiree, we are going to have another awesome week long vacation up at Drummond Island. It's a once-a-year-every-year event that we all enjoy. Making better this year, though, was the fact that the entire Czarnecki family is going to be there. Grandma and Grandpa, all of their nine children, and all of their spouses and children. Don't worry, I'm not going to describe them all. I don't know if I can even name them all.

I unfolded a newspaper as we headed north on I-75. I never read a newspaper, but today I was making an exception. A few days ago, the USS Washington Carrier Strike Group was sunk by unknown forces. Naturally, everybody in the military was scared crapless. Nothing takes out a Carrier Strike Group in a single fight with anything less than a nuke. But it wasn't nuked. Terrorists hadn't found some clever way to attack. Survivors told of strange aircraft, UFOs, disgorging aliens on the deck of the carrier while they sank the other ships in the group.

The strangest part is that the soldiers told of wild animals that arrived to help them fend off the attackers. Normally, they would just be dismissed as crazy, but the Navy doesn't normally lose a Strike Group either.

It stunned everybody. Paranoia suddenly came into fashion. Everyone had an eye out for anything suspicious. But one way or another, we were going to enjoy this vacation. It had been in the planning for a long, long time.

We were passing over the Zilwaulke Bridge. I looked out the window and grinned as I always did. It was this massive bridge crossing a fairly small river. They had built it so freighter traffic wouldn't have to wait for a draw bridge, and so land traffic wouldn't have to wait for freighters passing through. It was a debacle during construction, large pieces started falling off before it was even complete, forcing them to almost start over. To add to it, freighters no longer common the waters of the Zilwaulke river. So there was no point to its construction in the first place. It makes me laugh.

The towns came and went, miles and time was put behind us. Through Frankenmuth, Grayling, Gaylord, all the way to Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) City on the Straits of Mackinac. There, where Lakes Michigan in the west and Huron in the East meet is the most beautiful bridge you've never heard of. The longest suspension bridge in the world, the Mackinac Bridge, spans five miles between Mackinac and St. Ignace. The towers are five hundred feet tall, with the cars driving over it rising to two hundred feet above the water. It was built to withstand winds of over one thousand miles per hour. Incredibly strong, it will be there long after you and I are dead and gone. Kind of like the Roman ruins in Europe.

Well, we passed through as always, mesmerized by this feat of engineering as per tradition. From the top of the crest, we saw miles and miles of fresh water with some islands mixed in. The beauty of these great inland freshwater seas is striking.

After passing through St. Ignace, we hopped on M-134 and headed east. We crossed on the ferry at De Tour village, and we had finally arrived at Drummond Island. We arrived at Yacht Haven a little later, unloaded our baggage. It wasn't too late, six o'clock or so. But we were still exhausted by the trip. After having supper and playing some euchre, we all went to bed early.

The life changing events would have to wait for a night.

**Chapter 2**

I woke up. The beds at Yacht Haven are the most comfy I've ever been in. So soft that if feels you might fall all the way through when you lay down. Not that it really matters. I walked out of my bedroom into the living room. Dad was busy making everybody breakfast. The clock said eight o'clock.

The cabin was the largest at Yacht Haven. There were three smaller bedrooms, each with two beds in them. Plus a large master bedroom where Mom and Dad slept on their king sized bed. There were two bathrooms. All of the bedrooms had their doorways on the living room, which took up most of the space in the cabin. It had a couch, a love seat, and a cushy chair. There was a small TV in the room as well that only got good reception on something like five channels. But we could watch _Walker, Texas Ranger_, so all the other channels really don't matter.

The dinner table and chairs bordered the kitchen. It was small, to conserve space, but not so small that it would impede the person preparing the food. It's just smart to avoid having three or more people being in the kitchen at any given time. There was a white fridge, a four burner stove with an oven underneath, some counter space, the standard appliances of microwave and coffeemaker, in addition to a sink and a dishwasher. The whole cabin, I would say, makes a pretty good home away from home. Especially because it has a hot tub on the deck outside.

Everybody was getting up now. Nobody wanted to miss pancakes, sausage, and bacon. Yeah, that's my kind of up north morning.

As with every meal in such a large family, we had a lot of organized chaos going on. Dad was making breakfast. Mike was getting out all of the plates, cups and silverware out of the cupboards. Fred got out the orange juice and 2% milk. Mom was getting coffee ready for Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa.

"Hey Art!" Grandpa said, "When do you want to go fishing?"

"First, I have to put the boat in the water," Dad said, "Then we can go fishing any time we want."

"It looks like the water is just begging me to go out there. There isn't any wind, no waves, the air is clear, the sooner we get out there the better."

"I'll be on it as soon as I can, Dad. But first, who wants pancakes fresh off the stove?"

I made sure to be first in line. He gave me two. Not too surprising, Dad wanted to spread around the eight he had just made. They were tasty, as always. Once everybody was well fed, I swept the kitchen floor, Danny got on the dishes, and Tim vacuumed. After that was done, everybody was going to go do their own thing. It's vacation, after all, and everyone was going to enjoy themselves their own way. We had a few family activities planned for later on.

Personally, I planned to take a walk out in the woods behind the cabin, find a nice tree branch, and whittle it into a walking stick. Since the whole extended family was there, though, I figured it might be fun to do it with a cousin or two.

I walked over to Uncle Steve and Aunt Kathy's cabin. They had six kids: Chris, Robbie, Amelia, Stephen, Patrick, and Philomena. I knew that Robbie would be interested in taking a walk out in the woods. Stephen and Patrick would be too, but they would just drive me up the wall.

I knocked on the door, "Kathy can you get that?" I heard from the other side of the door. It opened, and a shorter brown haired woman answered the door. "Oh hi Scott. How are you today?"

"I'm doing fine, where's Robbie?"

"He's inside doing a few chores. I'll get him, just a sec," she went back into the cabin. Robbie was there a little bit later. "Hey Scott, what's going on?"

"Going for a walk, wanna come? Bring your airsoft gun, we can target practice while we're walking around."

"Oh sure, let me get my stuff," He went back in to equip himself. Thankfully, I saw no sign of either Patrick or Steven. Those are two annoying little munchkins. Robbie came back out, equipped just like me; with an airsoft gun, survival knife, and a machete.

We slung our weapons and climbed up the small cliff that led into the woods. Let me tell you, taking a walk out in unadulterated nature is quite beautiful. There's a reason why Drummond Island is advertised as "The Gem of the Huron." There are rocks sticking out of the ground here and there, covered in moss. Trees rise to the sky all around, but the leaves are all at the top so you have perfect visibility at ground level. Squirrels and such run about in the branches over your head, but most of the wildlife tries to avoid being seen.

We walked a ways, using the rocks we passed as for target practice, just being lazy and lollygagging. A young fawn was startled fawn ran toward us. It stopped dead in its tracks, looked over me and Robbie for a second, and ran off to my right.

"Weird," I said, "that thing was in a panic. And it obviously wasn't us it was running away from Did you hear any gunshots or anything Robbie?"

"No, so it's probably not poachers… let's go see what's over there," He pointed towards where the fawn came from.

"Hey Robbie, just in case, let's load up." I grabbed my extra clip for my Aftermath Broxa Evolution and loaded it with .25 gram bbs. Robbie did the same with the clips for his Tac1 Remington.

When we were done, we moved out with weapons at the alert carry. Strange noises started drifting my way. We would hear grunts, growls, and howls. Far away at first, but they soon they weren't too far away. We huddled together behind a tree, weapons pointed in the direction of the noise.

"What do you think that is, Scott?" Robbie asked in a whisper that could only barely be heard.

"Sounds like a fight, but what the heck would be fighting like that here?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to find out by getting in the middle of it. Let's head back."

"Yeah, let's move."

Just as the words got out of my mouth, a wind kicked up so violent that all the trees were swaying around me. I looked up and there was… something, just above the treetops. A door opened on it and three tall, bladed, bipedal monsters jumped out to the ground.

They got up and ran straight at us.

"SHOOT IT!" I screamed. I brought my airsoft gun to bear. I knew I couldn't kill it, so I peppered the one to my right in the face on full auto. My monster clutched its face and fell to the ground. I must have hit my target. I looked to my left. Robbie wasn't having any such luck. The Tac1 is very accurate, but in being pump action, it doesn't have the output of my machine gun. All he really did was piss the thing off.

I brought my gun to bear again and let loose. Now they were shielding their eyes with their bladed forearms. One pulled out a strange looking silver pistol.

"Run Robbie! Run!" We took off just as a tree exploded to my right.

TSSEEEW! TSSEEEW! TSSEEEW!

They were shooting phazers or something at us! I grabbed Robbie and jumped behind a bunch of rocks. They started heating up and cracking. Not good. I poked my head out to the side to see where they were.

It was right there!

I moved my head out of the way just in time as a massive T-Rex talon come down to ghetto stomp my face in. I spun around on my back and kicked it in the gut with all my might just as it was bringing its arm down to tear me open. All I could do was hope that it didn't find a way to get past my locked out legs. It swatted them aside with his arm, nicking them with the blades. There were no other options; it was going to finish me off.

The thing focused so completely on me that getting its throat slashed out by my cousin's machete came as a surprise. It fell over and gurgled on its own blood. I looked over the rock pile again. My jaw dropped open.

I saw a tiger, gorilla, grizzly bear, wolf, and a centaur thingy fighting against more of the things that we had just killed.

"I don't know what's going on here Robbie, but I'm willing to bet that the Earth animals are the good guys."

"We don't have anything to help them with, let's go!"

"Don't you read about any conspiracy theories on the internet? These are the guys that fight against those alien slugs. It's true. All of it."

"So what? There's nothing we can do! Let's run."

I looked over at the dead alien. We had helped the good guys a little, but they were still outgunned. I had to do something. On the alien's belt was another of the pistol things. I grabbed it. It didn't fit my hand right, but that didn't really matter.

"Don't you go out there Scott."

"And what else am I supposed to do?"

"Don't get killed."

"Gonna happen one day or 'nother." With that, I jumped over the rock pile, raised the phazer, and fired at the one that just punted the wolf into the top of a tree. It vaporized. I walked forward. Vaporized the one the gorilla was fighting. The tiger ripped out the throat of one. The centaur and the bear were isolated, cut off by five, now four, three, none. The noise stopped, I lowered the weapon. I heard something in my mind.

Who are you?

**Chapter 3**

"Scott Czarnecki. This is my cousin, Robbie," I signaled my arm to the kid still hiding behind the rocks, "I take it you are those people I read about on the internet, the ones that are fighting that invasion nobody knows about."

Mind if I call you Clint? You know, Clint Eastwood?

Shut up, Marco.

Demorph everybody, he didn't help us to kill us later. Heal your wounds. Weird. I couldn't match the voice to an animal. They started shifting shape. It was disgusting, but I didn't really care. I had just seen real kill-or-be-killed combat. Little could shock me now.

The one that had been the tiger came over to me, "Yes, we're the Animorphs. My name is Jake. I'm their leader. Are you okay?"

I looked down at my legs. They were bleeding a bit from getting nicked by the monster's blades, "I think I'll be fine, how about you Robbie?"

"I'm fine, I'm okay." Robbie came out and stood at my side, machete in one hand and knife in the other, just in case.

The others gathered around me and Jake. A bird landed on a low tree branch. The centaur scanned everywhere with his extra eyes to make sure no one snuck up on us. "You know Jake, I just saved your life. You owe it to me to tell me what's going one."

"Yes, I do." He told me the tale of what happened that night when he and his friends walked into the construction site. They told me of Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, Yeerks, and Andalites. My eyes were opened to the terror of the universe. I was shocked; the heavens were not as peaceful as I had liked to think.

Robbie and I soaked it in. "Go home," Jake said, "It's our job to deal with the problem. Go home and pray we win, because that's all you can really do."

I thought about it for a minute. Yes, they were the ones with the experience; they knew what they were doing. But no, now that I knew what was going on I couldn't just let the whole planet go down the toilet. I realized something, maybe they would let me help out in the only way I could.

"I can do more than that, Jake. You guys are a long way from home. You need someone from around here to help you. Guide you from target point to target point."

He's right Jake, Tobias said, I can only help so much by being your eyes in the air if I don't know what I'm seeing. He can tell me what I'm seeing.

"We always find out how to get there," Jake looked up at the bird, "he'd end up being another guy we have to keep an eye on so he doesn't get himself killed. We don't need any extra baggage like that."

"I'm good with a gun, I can protect myself. And something tells me you need more than just a guide. You can't show your face in a grocery store."

Prince Jake, recruiting these humans has its advantages and disadvantages, the Andalite said, let's discuss it somewhere in private.

With that, the group moved away about 50 feet and had a huddle. The hawk was still there, keeping an eye on us. I couldn't hear a word they said. I sat down on the pile of rocks, took out my machete, and started poking the dirt with it. I couldn't believe how much my life had changed in the course of ten minutes. From here on out, I wouldn't be playing war anymore, I would be making war.

A few minutes later, the group broke the huddle and walked my way. I stood up, expecting a life changing decision.

Jake stood in front of me again, "You're in, and so is your cousin if he wants to. But we can't give you the power to morph. We don't have the morphing cube anymore. Now let me tell you what's going on here. The Yeerks have massive operations here in Michigan. The United States and Canada controls the vast majority of the world's fresh water, because it's all right here. When open war breaks out, the Yeerks want to own those resources to give feed and drink to their own troops, and deny it to the human race. Right here, Drummond Island is going to be used as a base for bug fighters. There are lots of resorts here that need fuel for yachts and fishing boats. They use the existing infrastructure to supply Bug Fighters with fuel, and the yachts coming in and out are actually supply ships loaded with fuel. We tried to destroy the docking facilities, which are hidden in this forest. It was too well defended, so we're going to go after the main fuel storage facility at Yacht Haven, so that they won't be able to support so many bug fighters in this region anymore."

"Did you just say Yacht Haven?" I asked, almost panicked.

"Yes, why?"

"That's where my family is staying."

"We'll find a way to save them," Cassie said, "The Yeerks aren't using Yacht Haven to harvest troops, just to supply their fighters. Tell your family to hunker down and stay in their cabins, and we'll take care of the rest."

I nodded grimly, "I'll have to trust you. Let's head over there, I can show you any route you'd like to attack it."

**Chapter 4**

My cousin, the Animorphs, and I stood together on a Seastone Point. We looked over a small bay to see Yacht Haven on the other side, but we made sure to stay hidden in the tree line. I didn't have binoculars, but I knew there was something wrong. I shielded my eyes with my left hand and squinted. What I saw was as I suspected.

"Jake, we have Hork-Bajir out in the open. They're ready for you."

He cussed under his breath, "We need to find a way to attach those charges to the fuel tank and get out. And one of us with has to be in a morph with thumbs. They'd end up being an easy target as they plant the charge. Tobias? Can you get up there and tell us exactly what we're seeing?"

He flew off to investigate the Yacht Haven complex, though I already knew what was there. "He's going to find that the complex is built on fill, rocks put out in the water to make a solid wharf. The office is built on top of that, along with a tool shop and a Laundromat. There are lots of docks connected to the filled area. The large barn looking building on the far side houses more docks and boats. If the Yachts are bringing in fuels for Bug fighters, then the fuels are being stored in the tanks under the office. Something tells me that those tanks aren't big enough though, they probably have more fuel hidden in the pole barns by the hill to our right."

Jake factored that into his decision making process. Tobias came back with more intel, Hork-Bajir are crawling all over the place. They're starting to set up fixed defenses to ward off conventional attacks. The only place to directly access the fuel tank is on the wharf, next to the office right out in the open. However, that means that the tank is directly under the office. If we could dig through somehow, we could use the office as cover.

Jake looked somber, "We can't hit this place. There are simply too many guards, we'd either be shot to pieces when we try to access the tank or overwhelmed as we tried to dig to the tank.. We have to go to the next mission."

"If nothing is done, the Yeerks will have complete air superiority," I told Jake, "We can't have that."

"I know, but there's nothing I can do. I'm going to try to win this war, but I can't spend lives like any other commander. Nobody I have is replaceable."

I knew he was right; his small guerilla force couldn't afford casualties. Maybe there was some other way…

It hit me right then. His core group of warriors couldn't be risked. Voluntary militia could be. "Jake, let me talk to my family. They'll help."

"No, your people would just get killed."

"Better mine than yours," I felt awful to say it, this was my blood family! But it was the simple truth, "They all know how to handle guns, and we have plenty with us just in case we all wanted to go hunting. I know where we can provide supporting sniper fire from. You need me to complete the mission."

"This is getting out of hand," Jake muttered to himself, "Okay. We'll do it. Recruit your family. Do your best to not get anyone killed. I'm responsible for enough people as it is."

We walked up the 4x4 trail and turned left just as the ground was about to rise into the hill. We came out of the woods at cabin nineteen. My brother David was guarding the door with his 30-30.

"Scott! Robbie!" David whispered at us, "What the fricken heck do you think you're doing out there! Get inside!" I ran in the door, "Doggone it, we were worried about you. Do you see what's going on at the wharf?"

"I know perfectly well what's going on, and we need to do something about it." I walked into the living room. Mom and Dad got up. Grandpa was still sitting down in his chair.

"You are not leaving this house until we find out what's going on young man," Dad started, "We were worried sick. There was nothing to stop us from thinking you had gotten yourself killed somehow. That would be like you. Try and be some kind of a hero when you don't know what's going on."

I knew he was yelling at me because he loved me, but at the same time it was just making me mad, "Don't you understand what's happening Dad? Those internet rumors are all true, the planet is at stake. We need to help the shapeshifters complete a mission so the human race can live in peace. It's for the greater good, Dad."

"You don't know that for sure. This is probably something that a terrorist group is doing. So we just need to sit tight, wait for the Army to get here, and watch over the family in the mean time. We don't have to do anything."

Jake finally intervened, "Mr. Czarnecki, what Scott is saying is true. The world is being invaded by aliens and it's my group that fights them. We need your help, Mr. Czarnecki. We can't pull off this mission without you."

"There aren't any such things as aliens," Mom told Jake, "Scott, who are these people?"

Jake answered for me, "We are the Animorphs, Mrs. Czarnecki," he must have realized that words weren't going to get him anywhere, "Just watch."

He and his group moved into the center of the living room and started morphing. Mom and Dad backed up in horror. Grandpa just sat there, deep in thought. My brothers realized what was going on and turned around to point their guns toward the living room. This was not good.

"You might want to unshapeshift now, before my sons start shooting you," Dad warned the lion, bear, wolf, and gorilla that were now standing in the center of the cabin.

Okay, we will.

"This doesn't change anything. I'm responsible for my family, not for the world. It took me years and years to build what I have now. Countless days of my life have been sacrificed at work, to give you all food. To give you a house. To let you all play your hockey games that you love so much. It's coming to its fruition now, and after all I have done I will NOT let it be thrown to the wind in some war that the politicians and generals ought to solve. It's not happening. We're not helping them."

"Dad, don't you see? The whole world could be counting on us now. Billions of lives could end in death or slavery so absolute that South before the Civil War looked like livable conditions. We need to do something now, or it'll come back to kill us later."

"Scott! This isn't a movie! It'll kill us now instead of later."

I was about to say something back, but we both fell silent as Grandpa got up to speak. He rose slowly from his chair, age hindering even this simple activity. I saw in his eyes a new vigor that betrayed the wrinkles on his face.

"You," he said, "are both missing the point. My father, he came to America from the Russian owned part of Poland. There, he had little or nothing. Just a Polish peasant; that at one time had been forced against his will to join the Russian Army. He had no rights in the Old World. The Czar would take as he pleased from his livestock, crops, and children. Nothing he had he could call his. He couldn't even speak his native language in public; you could have been arrested for speaking Polish.

"He got on the ship to come to America. He moved to Detroit, where he got a job and built a family. At long last, he got what he worked for. The government wouldn't quash his dreams for its own benefit any longer. He could live as he wanted, as well as he wanted. No one could stop that. And when the day came for his children to move out of the house, is was the same for them. And when my children move out of my house, it was the same. I want it to be the same for all time, because it is a truly great blessing to us all.

Grandpa's voice was passionate now. Like no one in the world could possibly prove him wrong. And if somebody tried, may God have mercy on their soul.

"I am the heir to the Immigrant's Heritage. I am the steward to all he's worked for. America has given us so much; we owe everything we have to America. My brother Alfonse already gave his life in its defense, he gave all he had. If we really are Americans, we have to be willing to give it all back so that the dreams of others can be protected. I'm willing to fight, kill, and die to protect what I have now, and to protect the rights of all men to build their lives as they please," Grandpa looked to my Dad with a gaze that could burn through lead, "If you don't feel the same way, you don't deserve to have the name Czarnecki."

And thus the Czarnecki family went to war.

**Chapter 5**

It was such a beautiful day for boating. I wish I wasn't so terrified, then maybe I could have enjoyed it. I had told the Animorphs to hijack a boat, one with as many big engines on the back as they could find. They ended up with a thirty footer that had four massive engines. I was driving it.

I looked around. There were five Animorphs in the boat, and then my five brothers. Cassie had morphed wolf and led the women and children into the woods. If anyone followed them, she'd be able to smell it and protect them. The men took their posts and prepared to attack. I looked at my watch. Five minutes now. My grandpa, dad, uncles and cousins would hide in the treeline as they took sniper shots at the Hork-Bajir. Their post was on a hill that overlooked the office. It would present them with an excellent field of fire. When the charge was planted, we'd shoot up a flare and let them know to get out of the area. Nobody wanted to be nearby when the place went kaboom.

I looked at my watch again. One minute until the diversion started. I was shaking with anticipation. All my brothers were fidgeting. I hoped the boat would hold together through what we were about to put it through. "Buckle up everybody." We all strapped ourselves into our fishing seats. The Animorphs moved into the bedroom cabin. It's awful hard to strap a tiger, bear, gorilla, Hork-Bajir, and an Andalite to something, so we hoped that the padding in there would be good enough.

My watch beeped, I pushed the throttle forward. The boat seemed to leap out of the water. Before I knew it, we were moving at 50 miles per hour. The boat came out of hiding from behind the small island. I could see the hill and the wharf trading fire. I prayed to God that my family would be alright.

The diversion was working. All the Hork-Bajir were focusing on the hill. The ones that had been guarding the pole barns were trying to make it up the road that led up. One had his chest explode, the work of a 12 gauge shotgun.

I focused on piloting the boat. If I didn't do this perfectly, it could go very wrong. The fill wharf was coming up on my left. I turned toward it, at a 45 degree angle. I couldn't hit dead on, I'd just crash. Going 60 now. I focused with all my might. I jerked the wheel right at the last second. The boat, which was tilted to the right, met the angle of the fill perfectly and we launched into the air as we jumped it. I held the steering wheel in a death grip as I braced for the impact in three… two… one…

**WHAM! **Scrreeeeech!

The noise was deafening as we skidded across the pavement. My body felt like it was getting yanked this way and that, but my death grip kept me from flailing about like a ragdoll. We came to a stop right next to the office, just perfect. I unbuckled, grabbed the Dracon out of my pocket, and leaped over the side. My brothers were right beside me, and the Animorphs leapt out right behind us. We all headed for the office to clear it. Tim, Fred, and Dan all took up positions to cover us as we went in.

I turned the corner, there was the door. David and I broke the windows and started shooting inside. The Hork-Bajir and human Controllers sprawled for cover. Marco kicked the door open; Mike led the way in, blasting the cash register guy in the face with 12 gauge buckshot. Not pretty. Jake leapt through the doorway onto a Hork, Mike turned around and blasted another Hork in the groin. It fell over, and David finished it with a shot to the head.

Tobias and Rachel went through the door. The searched the two back rooms. Clear!

"Tim, Dan, Fred, get over here!" We got everyone in the office. I was in the center, between two rows of convenience store shelves. I fired my Dracon at the floor, trying to burn through to where the fuel tank was. As I looked around me, I saw my brothers giving and taking fire. There had to be some troops headed here to stop us. "Jake, send somebody to find an escape boat. We're gonna need one."

Got it. Marco, come with me. Rachel, you guard the doorway. Ax, you work the charge. Let's go. Jake and Marco ran out the door. I started waving the Dracon in a circle. I had to make a hole big enough for the whole charge to fit.

"They're gonna get through soon!" That was Danny shouting. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rachel beat the brains out of a Hork-Bajir with a mooring cleat. Finally, the darn hole was done being cut.

"Your turn Ax, they need my help over there." The Andalite came over and knelt at the hole, a tan package in his hands. I didn't bother to watch what he was doing. I ran into the back of the office, that's where most of the fire was coming from as troops disengaged the hill to attack my brothers and the Animorphs. They were all over the place! Hiding behind cars, in the doorways of the tool shop and Laundromat, all taking shots and some trying to advance.

Scott! A bunch of Hork-Bajir just got off that big yacht on the main pier, I heard Jake telling me, They're making a break for the office. I ran back to the windows. Rachel now had to contend with three Horks trying to make their way in. I knelt and took some well aimed shots, sending flaming bodies to the ground. Rachel picked up the last one and impaled it on a dock piling. I got up in the window and had a turkey shoot. Every time they would turn the corner to my left, I'd take 'em out.

One of them got smart. I saw a Dracon poke out past the corner. I fell backwards just as a read beam sliced through the air where I had been and into the ceiling. I saw Marco on the docks across from the office hurl a fifty pound anchor. The Hork with the Dracon now had a very flat head.

The charge is planted. We have ten minutes to get to a safe distance.

"Got it, Ax," I went to the window and yelled at the top of my lungs, "Jake! Marco! Get the boat over here!" Before I knew it, a 25 footer backed into the empty berth next to the office. "Let's go! Let's go!" There were still Yeerks shooting at us, but we had to get moving. As my brothers jumped into the boat, I turned around and shot the office with the Dracon. It caught fire. Good luck diffusing a bomb when you're in the middle of flames.

I turned around and ran for the boat. Fire exploded all around me, they were trying to get somebody before we escaped. I tripped and fell over as a bullet ripped my boot heel off. Mike reached up onto the wharf from the boat, grabbed my arm, and yanked me in. I got back up on my knees with Dracon in hand and returned fire. I was thrown back on my face when Tim floored the boat.

We were out of their like a cheetah running away from a tornado. Once the Animorphs demorphed, we zig zagged our way out to Harbor Island. I looked at my watch. Two minutes, it said. I smiled. This thing was going to go boom like the Mythbuster's cement truck.

**Chapter 6**

Sure enough, two minutes later:

**BOOOM! BOOOM!**

I never heard anything like it. Two massive explosions suddenly tore into the island, cracking the very bedrock that the whole island was made of. As we expected, the pressure wave moving through the air broke over Harbor Island and didn't blast us apart. Bits of rock, debris, and aliens started raining down on us. Our foe must not have been so lucky.

We high-tailed it over to Willoughby Island. I looked off to my left as Yacht Haven came into view from behind Harbor Island. The wharf wasn't there anymore. And neither did anything that ever had to do with Yacht Haven. They were all replaced by massive craters. The forest around it was leveled by the blast. It looked like a floor covered in toothpicks, with all of the trees lying down outward of the blast.

At Willoughby Island, we would rendezvous with the rest of the family. Then, we would get off the island as we had planned.

We made landfall on the rocky shore. Everyone was already there. I double checked. Yes, everyone was there, we hadn't lost anybody. I was so relieved, you have no idea. Grandpa had made a good speech about how we have to be willing to sacrifice the family we've worked so hard to build. At the same time, every last one of us was going to do everything possible to avoid making the ultimate sacrifice. With a family like this, you really do have something to live for.

Without saying much, we went southeast. We had to get to the south shore to get more fishing boats and escape. The Yeerks undoubtedly would take control of the ferry and the small airport, but they couldn't ever take every little cove that boats were harbored in.

Our group marched off through the woods. The Animorphs took point as a scouting party, using their wolf morphs to smell any trouble that could be headed our way. With the front taken care of, the men of the family spread out to cover the flanks and rear.

We walked for a half-hour or so. We reached our first stop. If we were going to fight ourselves a war, there would be some things we'd need first. Guns, ammo, food, survival gear. All could be found at Four Corners, the intersection for the two main roads of the Island. The stores there made up the closest thing they have to a downtown district.

Tobias, I heard Jake saying, We'll hang back in the woods for a bit. You make sure there's no one around watching. He turned back to us, Get down and stay hidden, we'll be back in a second.

We got down and kept an eye out for trouble. It seemed like hours, not knowing if more horrors from Hell would come after us. It was only five minutes later that we got the all clear.

We'll look after the women and children, you all get what you need so we can keep moving.

I looked around. Grandpa nodded. "Okay Jake, you might as well move the family across the road to those woods, we'll meet you on the other side."

Gotcha.

I walked over to the edge of the woodline. We all lined up. Uncle Steve gave the signal. Off we were! I sprinted fast as I could across that road. The all clear had been given, but I would be taking no risk. I was the first to the door of the hunting and fishing store. Mike, David, and others were there quickly. We lined up again on the door and got ready to move in.

We were all set. Mike stepped in front of the door, wound up his foot, and kicked the door in. A split second later, a dozen almost panicked armed Polacks stormed in. The clerk backed up the wall in bewilderment. Everyone else went to grabbing gear off the walls. I pointed my Dracon at him, "Don't move! Mike! Grab that rope and tie the guy up." We didn't know if he was a Controller or not, but we weren't taking the chance.

Mike went around the desk and tied the hapless clerk as I covered him. We left the man on the floor, hands and feet all tied together. Ten minutes later, we were out of there. We had new, all semi-action shotguns and a mix of semi and lever action rifles.

We booked it out of the store and back into the woods. We had what we needed; now it was time to get to a safe place. We formed up like we were before and marched off again.

I looked around; absorbing everything there was around me. The sun was about to go down to start another cool up north night. There was nothing to be seen in the trees besides rocks and branches. All the animals could smell us coming. We might have been trying to make a sneaky escape, but there simply was no hiding a group this big from nature itself. And if nature could find us, then the Yeerks could too, if they wandered too close.

Be that as it may, I stayed on my flank guard. I could see a near panic in everybody's eyes, but I could also see a grim determination. This was family we were dealing with. Every last one of use would pull through if only for one another.

The forest was getting pretty dark now. Soon we would have to slow down and feel our way through the woods. Past fifty meters, it was all black.

I heard a low whine in the distance. Everybody froze where they were. The whine grew louder and more intense, until it was a shrill whistle. It blew over the treetops and shook the leaves off them.

We have to get moving everybody! I think that was Tobias, the bird, We have a few Bug Fighters coming in. The sooner we get to the beach, the better.

Prince Jake, the Hork-Bajir can't see very good in the dark, Ax said from somewhere up ahead, We might have an advantage if the Czarnecki's stay low and wait for an opportunity to engage. If we keep moving, the Hork-Bajir will follow the noise and catch us, leaving us more vulnerable to an attack.

Yeah, that would be the best bet. Everybody change over to a morphs that you feel comfortable fighting in the dark with. Czarneckis, get everyone with a gun to make a line on my side of the formation.

Before long, I had two Andalites, two wolves, a tiger, and an owl all only an arms distance from me. Plus the rest of the family was moving up quietly, getting dispersion. Jake gave the command for the Animorphs to spread out. Each of them would take a group of my uncles and cousins and guide them in how to fight a battle. Rachel was my group leader. Cassie, in owl morph, would coordinate the whole deal from overhead.

I was tense. I looked over the large loge I was hiding behind. I couldn't see a doggone thin in this darkness. How was I supposed to fight like this? Only way to do it would be with a shotgun, make it hard to miss what you're shooting at.

I can smell the fear on you, Scott, Rachel said, looking over her wolf's shoulder at me, After a while, you'll learn that there's no point in being afraid anymore. Just do what you do.

Bug fighters have landed, It's strange to hear something in your head and know it's from above, We have twenty or so Hork-Bajir headed toward our line. They're sweeping right towards you guys. Keep an eye out.

I knew they were coming. I could hear they're feat breaking the branches on the forest floor. I prayed to St. Michael that they couldn't hear the sound of my heart pounding in my chest. Everyone else must have been going through the same thing, but they all maintained silence. A single stick breaking would give us all away.

All the Animorphs saw them long before we did and started giving us direction. Scott, Rachel told me, point that Dracon more to your left, just a little, that's it. Similar orders were being whispered all along the line. A few seconds later, I saw shadows walking toward me in the darkness. They were twenty feet away, tops. One stopped and signaled for the line to freeze. Not good.

A figure stepped out in front of the Hork-Bajir line. He was short and stocky, and dressed in clothes so dark I almost couldn't tell that he was even there. His head was under a hood, but I could see his eyes clearly. They were massive, each the size of a softball and radiated light even more so than a cat's eye. There was something in his right hand. A brief bit of moonlight broke through the clouds and trees, and glittered off the sharpened edge of his Sickle. This guy could only be trouble.

"I have seen many examples of why they call America the 'Home of the Brave," the figure said in a voice that matched the darkness all around, "You are not the least of them. You are all men of honor, and I have a proposal of honor,"

Cassie, are they trying to distract us and maneuver? Or are they bringing up reinforcements? What's happening up there?

Everything's stopped, Jake, nobody's moving. Cassie said.

Might be legit, then.

Jake, get a grip, Marco said, annoyed, since when have the Yeerks done anything legit?

The shadow of a man kept talking, oblivious to the Animorph's thought speak, "My brave men, you deserve a better fate than to fall to that butcher, Visser Three. On my honored word and on the Glory of the Emperor, I swear to you this: the Visser will never harass you while you take upon yourself the task of defending your country. And should you fall on the field of our contest; your bodies will be handed over to the military for a warrior's burial."

The patch of darkness in darkness drew back behind his line and dissolved into night. Out of nowhere, I heard him say, "Advance." The Hork-Bajir ran toward our line, weapons at the ready.

"Oh crap," was the only thing that came to mind.

Chapter 7

FIRE! Jake ordered.

Tsseeeww! Tsseeeww! Tsseeeww! I cut down three Hork-Bajir real quick. Spurts of blood came out of many of them as bullets ripped into their flesh. What was left took cover where they could find it. Fire started coming my way, small branches of trees fell on my head. Fires started burning behind me as Dracon hit brush.

Jake, you have to move the Czarneckis, Cassie said, The fires are silhouetting them, they'll be easy targets and they can't see any of the Yeerks.

Give me direction Cassie, Jake ordered, tell me how to move each team.

They must have switched over to private speak right then. Less we knew the better, less we'd get confused.

Follow me! Rachel crawled under the log and ran off toward the enemy. I jumped over the log, my family followed suit. I hid behind a tree, poked my eye out. No, no one was shooting in my direction. I sprinted forward again. To your right, we're flanking them. Follow me.

I ran up a small rise. There were five or six Hork-Bajir shooting at the Uncle Pete and his four boys. We would end this. I aimed and fired; with my brothers we felled them all. Blood covered the rocks they had been hiding behind.

Jake, we have another group of Hork-Bajir and some Taxxons moving to take the hill. The Czarneckis are going to be in a world of hurt if they don't get up there first.

I looked above me to the left. It looked like there was a castle in the rock on top of the hill. They were going to be there soon, and when that happened, they'd tear us to pieces with the high ground advantage. I couldn't let that happen.

My family was still with me. Mike, Danny, and Tim were to my left; with Fred, David, and Dad to my right. I could see it in their eyes, we could do it, and we'd do it together.

"Rock n' roll," I said. It was all that was needed to be said. We ran up that hill, with our hands touching the ground to balance ourselves out. It was taking too long. Try as we might, the Yeerks were going to get to the top before we did. Too bad, forward was the only place to go.

Look out! I belly flopped, my hair stood on end to touch the charged particles in the Dracon beam as it shot over my head. My brothers shot back, covering me. The big Hork drew back. I got up again and moved. I saw another one pop out to shoot at Dad. I squeezed off a quick shot. His body fell to the ground without a head.

The rocks were in front of me now. Hork-Bajir were rushing to man the wall. I jumped over and held the trigger on the Dracon as I swung my arm around, slicing into five of them. Rachel jumped on top of one that had been trying to hide behind the wall as we were charging up, snapping at its neck.

The whole Czarnecki family was surging up over the rocks now, led by their Animorph team leaders. The Hork-Bajir started running away! We were going to win!

The Animorphs ran over the top of the hill and chased the Yeerks back down the far side. Where ever the enemy was, I would chase them down and destroy them. It was my mission in life. I didn't even look back at my family, which was regrouping and getting their bearings back. I ran for the fighting, up and over the rock wall.

At the bottom of the hill, a clearing opened up and the moonlight revealed the scene of brutality and unadulterated violence, where aliens and animals fought each other for the sake of their survival. The Yeerks were rallying, trying to fight off the Animorphs who had caught up to their disorganized rear party. I kept heading down, jumping over rocks and dodging trees as I went. I found a place I thought would make a good sniping post. It was behind a massive tree that had a Y with both separate trunks at least three feet thick. I saw more Hork-Bajir joining the fight. They were about to get overrun.

I took aim at one charging into hit Ax in the side, who was already busy with three others. Tseeww, a flaming hole appeared in his chest. I shot one of the others in the head. Now Ax should be able to handle it.

The shadow figure and two Horks were circling Jake, looking for an opportunity. I wouldn't let them get it. I fired, taking one Hork's arm off at the shoulder. Jake leaped at the blackness, but the other Hork tackled him in mid-air. I had to get closer, I couldn't risk this shot now, and I might hit Jake.

The shadow started shouting orders to more of his men that were arriving. My family arrived around me and started shooting down to help out the Animorphs. But they could only do so much, I had to save Jake.

The Hork's arm was motoring up and down while he held the tiger pinned to the ground. I ran into the thick of it, shooting all the way in the hope I might hit something. I got there, just as the Hork ripped open the Jake's left side for the third time. I got at the angle where I knew there wasn't any of Jake behind the Hork and pulled the trigger.

The struggle stopped, and the Hork-Bajir slid off Jake in two places. I ran up next to him, protecting him from Yeerk reinforcements.

"Demorph Jake, it's safe. I'll protect you." I told him. I whirled to my right, three Hork-Bajir ran out of the bushes at me. Ax stopped one for a fight; I took out the other two. Dracon beams started responding to the hill. I shot back at them, trying to cover my family. More of the enemy was running out of the bush, they were going to try to take out the Animorphs at any cost.

I kept up my fire. Marco, Rachel, Ax and Tobias were all fighting next to me now, trying to protect their demorping leader. I might have been terrified out of my wits, but knew enough that this moment in my life was probably going to be the biggest honor in my life, literally fighting side by side with heroes such as these.

"CHARGE!"

A little off to my left, a line of fifteen Hork-Bajir led by the shadow came running at us. Two were downed by sniper fire, I downed another three. They hit our line, just as Jake was getting back into his morph. This was it.

"AHHHHHH!" I screamed for my life, Dracon in left hand and knife in the right. Marco got drop kicked thirty feet. I shot that one and his buddy next to him.

Rachel was in tight with two of them. As tough as a wolf is, there's only so much one can do. I shot one in the back of the head, but the damage was done. Rachel wouldn't win this one, not if that one stayed on her. I sprinted as hard as I could, lowered my shoulder and body-checked that Hork with everything I had. We fell to the ground, and I put my knife in his head before he could recover from the shock.

Then there it was before me, the shadow. I sprung up and brought my Dracon to bear, but it was too late. He knocked it out of my hand with his Sickle. He swung again, but I deflected it to the side with my knife. I backed up to give myself the time to grab my machete.

He paused, "You have fought well, young one. Your acts of bravery shall never be forgotten, you have my word that I will make it so."

"The word of a Yeerk," I spat, "What good is that?"

"If I could let you live any longer, you might find out. The others of my species have such a bad reputation that they've brought upon themselves. I much prefer the human codes of honor; it would do my brothers well if they were to follow them, as I do."

I swung at him with my machete, he swatted it to the side easily. I stabbed with my knife in my left hand, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me to him. It twisted me around, now my back was to his front.

Pain exploded in my belly. I tried to scream, but I couldn't. I dropped my knife and machete and looked down. The Sickle was sticking out of my stomach. He started whispering in my ear,

"And when he gets to Heaven  
To St. Peter he will tell  
'Another soldier reporting, sir,  
I've served my time in Hell.'."

He pulled it out, I fell to the ground. The world blacked out as I fell asleep for the last time.

Chapter 8

I knew Scott would get himself in a bind like that one day. I knew it, I told him so many times that he'd get himself in trouble that he'd never get out of. Why couldn't he listen to me? Why couldn't he listen to his brother David?

There was only one thing I could do now. I scoped in on the dark figure with my 30-30 rifle, and fired two quick shots. One nicked him in the leg, the other I don't think it hit. I aimed in again, but before I could get my shots off, he called off his attack and disappeared into the woods. All I could do was spray into the darkness, and pray that one bullet had given me revenge.

I knew it didn't.

Jake, I heard Cassie saying, The Bug fighters are lifting off and moving out. They're pulling back, looks like we've won…

I tuned her out. This was for sure was no victory. I ran down the last of the hill; I tripped over a stump and rolled. I didn't care; I had to get to Scott. I got up again and knelt at his side. I rolled him onto his back, but it was too late. His body was limp, he wasn't breathing.

"No. No no no no NO!" I couldn't believe it. This was somebody I had spent my whole life growing up with. Now he was gone, just like that. Everyone started gathering around the body in a stunned silence. Many of them were crying. Except for the extra Andalite, the Animorphs had all demorphed and gathered around as well. They were looking at each other, trying to figure out something to say.

Jake stepped up, "Scott saved our lives, all our lives. If he hadn't been there fighting by our side, we all would have been killed. I… I'm so sorry… I should have been there to do the same for him. I'm responsible for this." He was a leader. And like any leader it was his job to tell the family why a soldier under his watch had died. But words, mere spoken words, were of no help.

The group of women and children were being guided over the hill by the bird. They joined our group. All the mothers pushed their way to the front, trying to see whose child it was.

I looked up, and there she was. Mom knelt down and hugged him, crying and sobbing. I put my arm around her and cried on her shoulder, there was nothing else to do.

Mom looked up at Jake with a face of pure rage and hatred, "You… You took my son away from me!" She stood up and walked toward him, "You forced him to fight your war, and you didn't even look out for him!"

She drew her hand back to strike. The Andalite, quick to defend his leader, snapped his tail forward to my mother's neck. A split second later, the other Andalite swatted the tail away and slapped the Andalite in the face with his own tail.

Ax! This has to take its natural course.

She walked back to the body, sat down and stroked the lifeless hand, "No," she said, "It's not your fault. This is the nature of war. We should have seen this coming." She stopped, hung her head and cried. Regaining some of her composure a few seconds later, she continued on, "We all knew this… this could happen. But it was in the back of our heads… just something we couldn't… couldn't think about. Now I realize the risk. The risk… it wasn't just risking our family. It was the risk of seeing our brave young men stacked in piles of corpses… just like my boy!" She couldn't control herself after that. All she could do was sob. It was a pathetic scene.

The Animorphs couldn't answer that. There was only one man who we knew who could.

Grandpa walked into the center. He looked down at my brother, tears in his eyes, "He's with Alfonse now," he whispered. He looked around, "None of you remember The War. Over a million Americans had spilled their blood for freedom; half that had been killed. Women all across the country wept for their sons. Men everywhere cried for their brothers. All of them knew what would have happened if they hadn't gone to fight. The Japanese would have come to us, and pyres of American dead would have lit the night sky, the stench of burning corpses would have permeated every city.

"Alfonse didn't have to go back to the war. He had already volunteered, and his first contract had already been up by time the war was winding down. He could have come home finally to settle down, find a wife and raise a family; take care of that family until the day when that family would turn around and take care of him. That's what should have happened.

"But no, it didn't. He would have no more part in my life, but a part so major it cannot be ignored. The day I graduated from high school, I looked around the crowd for him, but he wasn't there. The day I married my love, I wanted him to stand, but he wasn't there. When my kids were born, there was always one too few people at the celebration. When my father died, there was one too few to mourn. When I was finally old and my children were marrying, there was one less than there should have been to see them off. There was a gaping hole in my life where he had been. And though I know he wanted to be there for me, he knew that he had died so that I could still experience all those things, which may have never happened except for men like him.

"Scott is the same in every way. His sacrifice will enable all things to be possible for our families and for others. In the same way that I will never forget my brother, I will never forget him."

Mom calmed down long enough to listen to the wisdom. After it was done, she sat there in silence. We all looked around at each other, what would happen now?

She got up and walked back to Jake, but she was not about to strike, "You… You had better live, and you had better win," her voice was trembling, but was gaining strength. "When this is over, I want you to see the world that you saved. I want you to see the human race into a new age of peace, prosperity and harmony. Then when you look at it in its full glory, know that it was my son who made it possible."

Her voice dropped, revealing something so dark that I couldn't believe it was coming from a mother, "If anything happens to you, if you don't succeed, then my son will have died for nothing. If you let that happen, I swear I will search for you to the ends of the Earth. And when I find you, you will wish you had never been born."

Chapter 9

The mission would continue, no matter what. We all suffered from this loss, but things would only get worse if we stuck around. I slung my rifle across my back and cradled Scott's body in my arms. Hopefully, if the _Constitution _was fully equipped as it was advertised, we would be able to conduct a proper burial at sea.

"Let's go," I said, "The longer we wait around here, the more of this we'll get. We have to go."

"David's right," Jake said, "Let's move."

We weren't expecting another attack. The Animorphs told us that it would take a while for the Yeerks to muster another attack like that. So we didn't get in a formation again, we just moved as fast as we could over rocks we couldn't hardly see, avoiding fallen branches that we couldn't tell were there. A half hour later, though, we had made it to a small bay. The moon shown through the clouds again, dancing on the black water.

It was one in the morning by time we made it. There were seven houses scattered around this half-mile wide bay, each with its own dock and one or two boats at each dock. The families scattered to find boats for themselves. The Animorphs morphed again to take care of a house that didn't have its lights out.

I walked along the beach, taking it all in. It looked like the perfect fishing spot, a place where you could drop your hook in the water and a split second later you'd have a fish. If only we could stop to fish. I could use that kind of peace, of sitting for hours with nothing to worry about. No. Those days were done and would never return.

We came to a dock. The boat there was pretty big; we'd need it to be. It had a cabin for beds and its own little head. It would be a crowded fit, but we could load all nine of us on there.

"Gas is full," Dad said. He turned the key. The trio of 100 horsepower engines purred in my ears. I had always dreamed of a boat like this. I wish we didn't have to straight up steal it in order to use it.

The Animorphs were going to and fro; making sure everybody had enough gas. If they didn't, they'd find some. Soon, the roar of boat engines echoed across the bay as we booked it off the Island. The last demonstration of the _Constitution _had been at Rogers City, and the next would be at De Tour Village. So we took our little fleet and headed west.

A couple of hours later only Danny, Tobias, and myself hadn't lain down to sleep. I was driving; Danny was in the seat next to me. Tobias was perched on the boat's dashboard. He was our 'radio', so to speak. I couldn't yell to another boat for anything because of the engines and the splashing water, but ambient noise had no effect on thought-speak, so Tobias would communicate with the other Animorphs on other boats for us if need be.

The moon hadn't gone back behind the clouds. The sky seemed to be clearing up. The wind had completely stopped some time during the night. Peace had taken over the lake, the black water seemed like a plane of glass, a perfectly smooth horizon as far as the eye could see. It was so strange, that nature would be so calm the same night my life had been torn apart.

Our fleet was headed south. The _Constitution _wouldn't be making it very far without wind, so we had to go to it. There was going to be plenty of time to burn if we had to go most of the way to Rogers City. I didn't know if I could make it, though. I was burning with rage. Blood drunk is what soldiers call it. My brother's blood had been shed; I would demand blood in return.

"Tobias?" I asked, "How do you do it?"

Do what?

"Deal with all of this? I mean, you've been fighting this war for a long time now. You must know how."

He paused for a little bit. I don't know what looks uncomfortable for a bird, but it showed, I don't. Not really. Not in any way you can.

"What? But all the pain of the fight, how can it not affect you? Are you not…" I caught myself just in time, but too late.

Not what? Human? Do I look it? I was hardly human before I became a bird. You have no idea… My life was nothing but loss since as far as I can remember. I was told that my parents wanted nothing to do with me. They had left, and I was left with two negligent pieces of crap, an aunt and an uncle, that I had to call family. And things would only get worse from there!

He stopped. I didn't want to do this to him, but it was pretty obvious I hit a bad nerve. I know you must be feeling pretty bad right now. But to be honest, I haven't lost anyone yet in this war. No one that I knew. The one I've come closest to losing is myself, actually. How weird is that, huh?

Look, I've been like this for a long time now. If there's anything I've learned it's that life goes on. I thought I lost myself to the hawk, but I came back from that. Every day, I struggled to survive in the wild. I learned to kill and to avoid being another animal's kill; and every night I dreamt about that cruddy human life I had where I'd never have to hunt a bowl of cherios. I would learn about my dead father, and it would only open old wounds, but then I learned I have a heritage to be proud of. I was captured and tortured once; all I wanted right then was for it to end. When it was over, I was still alive. And as long as I was alive, I could keep fighting. That's all that will ever be there for me.

I tried to understand. I think I had something. Bad stuff happens, but the war wouldn't stop for me to mourn. No matter what I had to keep going. Hopefully, I'd have time for mourning when the deeds were all done.

I see masts in the distance! About three miles, 11 o'clock. Cassie was yelling from Uncle Bill's and Aunt Bernadette's boat. The whole fleet headed that way. Sure enough, there were ships masts out there.

A few minutes, Jake gave the order, Cut engines, row us in. Animorphs, let's get on the ship and ready the lines for boarding.

"Good luck Tobias."

You too David. He took off. The warriors gathered in the sky above me and set out to the ship.

"Dan, wake everyone up," I ordered, "Let's get on those oars."

I grabbed an oar and set to work. A half hour later, we were pulled alongside the mighty frigate. I looked up at the _Constitution_'s gunwales. Tobias was there in his Andalite form. He threw a line down to our boat. I caught it and tied it to a cleat. Dan threw a line up and Tobias tied that to the gunwale. I climbed up the rope, and soon Dan, Mike, Fred, and Tim were there with me. We un-slung our weapons and readied ourselves for the fight.

Our mission here was to convince them to join us and sail us to safety. But, with the war being what it was, we had to be prepared to take the ship by force. The Animorphs had already knocked out the night watches, now we had to go below decks and have a discussion with the Captain.

We walked over to the stairwell to below decks. If a fight happened down there, it was gonna get real ugly. I walked down, ducking my head to avoid banging it on the deck overhead and entered a new cavernous world. There were kerosene lamps hanging from the ceiling; they glowed yellow, casting just enough light to make the bowels of the ship seem eerie.

I turned left, that's where the Captain's cabin would be. I stopped to wait for the others. My eyes were peeled, my ears were wide open, but I didn't see anyone. It couldn't have been abandoned…

After a few minutes of moving slowly and quietly, all of us made it down. I pointed to where we needed to go. We were up and moving.

"FIRE!"

POP POP POPPOPPOP. The crackle of old-time muskets being fired in volley was almost deafening in such an enclosed space. We all spun around at the ready. There's one! I raised my rifle and fired… but the bullet hit a wall and was crushed in mid air.

I lowered the rifle out of my shoulder, "What is going on?" I asked.

Chee, Jake said, Stay here. Erek! Where are you?

A sailor walked out of the armed crowd on the far side of the force field. He was shorter, but stocky. He was wearing the same uniform as everyone else, the baggy white shirt and pants with that weird looking black tie thing. The face wasn't very visible in the darkness, and the back of his head disappeared into the darkness because his hair was black.

"I'm Elijah Howard," he said, "not Erek. But yes, I am Chee."

What are you doing here? Rachel asked, I wouldn't ever expect the Chee to have anything to do with a ship of war.

"I know. I was press ganged into service on this ship during the War of 1812. Though I couldn't actually take part in the fighting, every bit of the legend of Old Ironsides is true. When I heard it would be sailing again, I couldn't help myself. I had to come. It feels so good to be sailing her again."

The Captain walked out of his cabin and froze at the sight of animals, aliens, and heavily armed humans in a standoff with his sailors and a force field.

He regained his composure, "What is going on here?"

I looked over at the 'Chee.' "Well?"

The best way to describe what happened next would be to say that the world fell away. The Constitution was no longer there. Instead, we were standing on a grassy plane, watching erect dogs play. The Chee explained what there was to know about that. He carried on with the hi-tech hologram, showing us his life on the _Constitution_, and then the battles of the Animorphs. When all of us; sailors, Animorphs, Czarneckis and the Captain finally knew what was going on, we returned to the Constitution.

The Animorphs explained the story of what we were doing now. The Captain looked at us all with great interest. He scratched his grey beard. His wrinkled face showed age and wisdom that came with it. His bright blue eyes sparkled at the thought of adventure.

"Yes, I'll be more than happy to help," he said, "and so will my men. Not many people know this, but the crew of the Constitution is actually made entirely of active duty Navy personnel. We will do what you ask. Men, you may put those weapons back in the armory."

The crowd dispersed and went to the bow of the ship to put the weapons back. The Chee walked up to us.

"There's something you need to know."

The Animorphs had already demorphed, since it was safe now. "What would that be?" Jake asked.

"It's Mackinac Island. It's being used as a major host collection depot. The people on vacation that plan to tour Mackinac Island come on a boat and are forced into being Controllers when they get there. The Grand Hotel itself is the depot they have for distributing portable Kandronas. They don't have a single centralized Pool Complex in the area, because everyone they grab gets a portable.

"The number of troops they have is growing every day, and the tourists go home where they become hidden cells that we can't detect. Whenever the call comes, they'll carry out an order and interfere with the warfighting ability of the United States. Their plan must be stopped. When the Yeerks declare open war, their most powerful opponent will be knocked out but quick because of all the agents they've taken here."

"I'm in," I said so quickly I think I actually jumped. Jake didn't even have a chance to say anything.

"Well," Rachel smiled, "I think I like this guy."


End file.
